The rapid buildup of telecommunications infrastructure combined with substantial investment in Internet-based businesses and technology has brought Internet connectivity to a large segment of the population. Recent market statistics show that a majority of households in the U.S. own at least one personal computer (PC), and a significant number of these PCs are connected to the Internet. Although the majority of household PC are connected to the Internet by dialup modem connections, broadband connectivity is being rapidly adopted and is decreasing in price as a variety of technologies are introduced and compete in the marketplace. A large majority of households in the U.S. and Europe are viable for at least one or more type of broadband connection, such as cable, DSL, optical networks, fixed wireless, or two-way satellite transmission.
A market for home networking technology has emerged, driven by the need to share an Internet connection between two or more PCs, and to connect all the PCs to productivity peripherals. There has been innovation in local area network (LAN) technology based on end-user desire for simplicity and ease of installation. Installing Ethernet cable is impractical for a majority of end-users, therefore a number of no-new-wires technologies have been introduced.
Wireless radio-frequency (RF) LAN technology has also been introduced into the home networking market. Theoretically, wireless technology is the most convenient for the end user since there is virtually no installation. There are curently two prevalent standards for wireless networking, including Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11b and HomeRF. Both of these systems utilize the unlicensed 2.4 GHz ISM band as the carrier frequency for the transmission of data. Both of these technologies have effective ranges of approximately 150 feet in a typical household setting. RF transceivers are required for each device to communicate on the network. In addition to utilizing Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocols, IEEE 802.11b and HomeRF include additional encryption and security protocol layers so that the user's device have controlled access to data being sent through the LAN.
Due to market competition and the effect of Moore's Law, home networking technology is greatly increasing in performance and availability, while decreasing in price. For example, the IEEE 802.11 technology roadmap shows the introduction of 802.11a at 54 Mbps, also utilizing the 5 GHz band. It is important to note that LAN data-rates are increasing much faster than wide-area (broadband) data-rates, such as the data-rates provided by “last mile” technologies including DSL, DOCSIS.
The availability of home networking technology and broadband proliferation brings with it the introduction of the residential gateway, a device that exists to connect a local area network or networks in the home, to the Internet. There are many types of gateways including DSL modems and cable modem. Digital cable set-top boxes are now being introduced with integral DOCSIS cable modem and hard disk drives. Other residential gateways have been introduced that include PC comparable processing power and hard disk drives, as well as cable and DSL modems, and LAN transceivers.
While networked PCs with Internet connectivity provide greater convenience for productivity applications, there are other trends that are influencing end user's content experiencing habits. Most notably, the digitization of virtually all media types is creating content portability and reusability that are affording new uses and content presentation scenarios. For example, Personal Video Recorders (hereafter PVRs) are increasing in popularity. These devices are an improvement on VCR “time-shifting” functionality, allowing users to record, pause, and start live broadcast media, almost in real time. These devices digitize terrestrially broadcast television content and store the files on a hard disk drive, providing much faster random access, fast-forwarding, and rewinding. A graphical user interface is provided that allows users to make content preference selections.
The MP3 digital audio format is an audio encoding technology that allows consumers to further compress digital audio files such as those found on Compact Disks, to much smaller sizes with very little loss in sound quality. For example, the MP3 format allows for compression of audio content to approximately 1 million bytes per minute of audio, at near Compact Disk quality. The smaller size of MP3 encoded audio files has enabled these files to be shared by users across the Internet, since the digital transfer of these files can be completed in a reasonable amount of time with a broadband connection. A variety of Internet-based digital music access and distribution services have appeared that provide means for users to gain access to digital audio files.
In addition to music, many other types of audio content are now available in digital format, such as spoken-word content, news, commentary, and educational content. Digital files containing audio recordings of books being read aloud are available for download via the Internet.
PC-based digital audio software players, such as WinAmp provided by AOL/TimeWarner, have been created that provide a convenient graphical user interface and software decoding of MP3 files. PC software digital audio players allow users to play MP3 files on their PC, using an existing sound card with external speakers. Software digital audio players typically include playlist editors, which is are applications that allows users to organize their MP3 or other digital music files. Playlists are files that include names and file system path designations to file based digital audio files.
Users who amass a large quantity of digital audio files often have a desire to listen to those audio files at places other than at the PC. Portable MP3 playback devices have been developed for this purpose. Portable MP3 playback devices are significantly smaller than portable CD players because they contain no moving parts, only solid-state flash memory, a microprocessor for decoding MP3-formatted audio content, and batteries.
One limitation of portable MP3 playback devices is that the cost per bit of audio content stored is still very high because of the high cost of flash memory. The typical portable digital audio playback device includes enough flash memory to store about one CD's worth of digital music. MP3 enthusiasts may own hundreds or thousands of MP3 files. The result is that the user is burdened with having to continually manually change the music files in the device by plugging the device into the PC and operating a user interface to delete and add new music if they want to listen to a wide range of music.
Digital audio enthusiasts, as well as music enthusiasts in general, have a desire to listen to their audio collections in their automobiles. Evidence of this is the market success of automotive-based CD changers. Since user's typically do not purchase multiple copies of CDs, they must manually transport CDs between the automobile and home stereo system if they want to listen to the audio content at both locations.
Telematics is a field of technology that includes mobile, automobile-based telecommunications. Increasingly, automobiles include a variety of telematics equipment and capabilities, such as on-board cellular communications and navigation systems. However, due to the cost per bit of transmitted data, even in 2.5 G and 3 G systems, it is cost prohibitive to transfer large amounts of file-based content, such as audio or graphics files, to the automobile via the cellular system.
What is required is a system for automatically and conveniently transforms digital content to the automobile where it can be stored and played back according to the user's preference. Additionally, the system should include a system for selecting content to be automatically delivered or refreshed at the automobile on a regular basis. The system should also allow users to access their music by the use of the same playlist structure in the home and in the automobile.